Composer: Josquin Desprez
Performer: Orlando Consort
Audio CD
SPARS Code: DDD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: APE (image+cue)
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Size: 259 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Inviolata, integra, et casta es Maria à 5
02. Ut Phoebi radiis à 4
03. De profundis clamavi à 5
04. Christe Fili Dei – J’ay pris amours à4
05. O Virgo virginum à 6
06. Vultum tuum deprecabuntur à 4 – Vultum tuum deprecabuntur
07. Vultum tuum deprecabuntur à 4 – Ave Maria, gratia plena
08. Vultum tuum deprecabuntur à 4 – Sancta Dei genitrix
09. Vultum tuum deprecabuntur à 4 – O intemerata Virgo
10. Vultum tuum deprecabuntur à 4 – O Maria, nullam tam gravem
11. Vultum tuum deprecabuntur à 4 – Mente tota tibi supplicamus
12. Vultum tuum deprecabuntur à 4 – Ora pro nobis
13. La déploration de Johannes Ockeghem: Nymphes des bois à 5
14. O bone et dulcis Domine Jesus – Pater noster – Ave Maria à 4
15. Huc me sydereo / Plangent cum à 5
16. O Virgo prudentissima / Beata Mater à 6
How Can Something So Fine….
… be so rare? so quickly “unavailable”? [It is available at a more reasonable price, by the way, at amazon.uk]
Much of the best Renaissance vocal music is to be found in motets, which provided the composers more freedom of form and inspiration for emotive coloration than the movements of the mass, yet recordings of the masses are far more common, with the motets treated as addenda. Josquin is no exception; his motets are extraordinary and rival the best of his cyclical masses.
The Orlando Consort sings everything one-on-a-part, for the very good reason that they CAN. Their richness of vocal timbre and their fine unity of ensemble make their performance a “bigger’ experience than a full choir of twenty-four less expressive singers. They are to the repertoire of vocal polyphony what the Quartetto Italiano was to the quartets of Beethoven, the benchmark of artistry.